


Inheritance

by medaeus (medivhthecorrupted)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types
Genre: Doocasta, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29989839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/medivhthecorrupted/pseuds/medaeus
Summary: A young Count Adan explores his late-uncle's possessions and discovers a secret no one knew about.
Relationships: Dooku/Jocasta Nu
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Inheritance

**Author's Note:**

> A vignette for the New SW Canon server

Count Adan stood in the dusty walk-in closet that once belonged to his late-uncle, Count Dooku. The layer of gray dust had nearly twenty some years to collect and he was no more surprised to find it here like he did everywhere else in residential part of his family’s ancestral castle.

The Empire had not been merciful to the people of Serenno or anyone related to his uncle. He remembered his cousin telling him about how Lord Vader had come and made the Houses murder their Counts to avoid his wrath and how one House refused and was wiped out completely. He was glad that he had been taken to Alderaan to live with cousins while his Jedi uncle waged war on the galaxy. He wasn’t sure he could have murdered his mother and he certainly would not wish to be murdered in turn.

He took a deep breath to clear his thoughts of the past and coughed when he inhaled some of the dust motes. He cleared the air of the offending articles with a wave of his hand and stepped further into the closet.

For some reason the Imperial governor had not taken up residence in this part of the castle, leaving the residential floors untouched and sealed off. He wondered if his uncle’s spirit haunted the place. Did Jedi haunt places of importance to them? Whatever the reason, the Empire had felt it wasn’t worth trying to take over and remodel for themselves.

He knew someone had tried at some point. The private study had been ransacked of all data disks and electronics at least. He was sure that there were a few personal affects taken as well but he would not know what or if anything had been taken.

Adan turned his attention to what remained of his uncle’s belongings and rested a hand on a set of hanging clothing. Formal wear from the looks of it. Serennian cut. He was curious about the man who had lived before him and wondered if any of his Jedi belongings still existed or if the Empire took those too.

He quietly went through the closet, reverently and curiously looking at the articles of clothing and expensive jewelry fit for men. There was an old time piece that still worked once he wound it up, the design of some kind of bird rising and inlaid with clear gemstones of a sort he couldn’t identify. It felt warm to the touch though and he swore he heard whispers for a brief second.

His attention was soon drawn to a drawer at the bottom, below where he had found the time piece. He set the clockwork down and knelt to draw out the drawer. Inside was a metal box that was quite plain compared to everything else he had seen so far. It was locked but the mechanism looked simple and with the right leverage, he was sure he could open it.

He didn’t need to for a key was hidden behind it the moment he lifted the box from its place. Once he had it open, he felt disappointment at the contents inside.

A part of him felt like the adventurous child he had been on Alderaan, hoping for something exciting. A hidden Jedi treasure perhaps. But all that was inside was a woven silver ring and a transparent crystal with a blue tint to it.

The young Count sat back on the floor and placed the metal box in his lap. He stared at the items and wondered why his uncle kept them and what they meant to him. He figures they were important or Dooku wouldn’t have kept them in a keepsake box at the bottom of a closet drawer.

He carefully reached in and picked up the crystal and immediately released it as if he had been electrified upon touching it. But all that happened, and he still isn’t quite sure what had happened, was a whisper crying out in despair. It did not make sense to him. Crystals did not cry out much less in despair.

He wondered if it was a Jedi thing. He had heard the old Order had revered some kind of crystal but he did not know what kind or what it looked like. Only that it had something to do with the mystical power they possessed.

Adan chose to ignore the crystal for the moment and picked up the ring instead. If he thought the despairing cries were disturbing before, he had been mistaken. He found himself suddenly seized with imagery unfamiliar with him and voices he did not recognize but one he suspected was his uncle by how deep it sounded.

There was a woman, a fiery auburn haired and petite thing dressed in cream colored robes with a strange pattern woven into the hem and tabards. The man that was with her was tall and dark haired and he knew it was his uncle. Adan’s eyes widened as he unwittingly watched the two Jedi...

  
————

“ _You are incorrigible,” she accused her companion and the young man simply grinned and tucked his arms into the large sleeves of his outer robe._

“ _That is one of the reasons why you love me.” He leaned in to steal a kiss from her but she moved just at the right moment to have him miss and settle for a kiss on her cheek instead. “You moved.”_

“ _Yes, that is what one does when they are reaching for a data card from the shelf.” She handed him her finding and he huffed in disappointment._

  
————

“ _Jo!” He was at her side immediately, azure blade illuminating them in the dark and sizzling and hissing with each rain drop hitting the plasma. They were soaked from the downpour and the sounds of fighting can be heard in the distance. “Are you alright?”_

“ _I think my ankle is sprained,” she replied after wiping mud from her face and reaching to touch the sensitive appendage. She winced painfully, “Yes. It is.”_

_He placed a hand on the ankle and quietly closed his eyes, “It’s not broken and the sprain is mild, but you probably shouldn’t walk.”_

“ _Which isn’t a choice right now... Dooku! Behind you!” she shouted and extended a hand. There was a surprised grunt and a sickening thud as something slammed into the ruin wall._

_Dooku looked behind him to scowl at the Abyssian pirate. “Thanks.”_

“ _That’s twice now I’ve saved you,” she grinned up at him and he laughed._

_His lightsaber powered down and he hooked it to his belt so he could lift her up into his arms. “Then consider this rescue repayment, love.”_

  
————

“ _Marry me,” he reverently asked of her. She was leaning over a clay tablet and nearly dropped the brush at his request._

“ _We cannot,” she tried to reason with him._

_He refused to let her argue against the idea and leaned forward on his arms, “Marry me. Be my wife. Let me truly love you.”_

“ _But we’re Jedi, it’s against our tenets.”_

“ _No it’s not,” he gestured flippantly at what he thought of some of their tenets. “Selfish attachment is. Marry me.”_

“ _But isn’t marriage pretty much the embodiment of such?” She had set the brush aside and moved the tablet out of the way. A light breeze gusted through the tent they were in and unsettled a few strands of her auburn hair._

“ _In some cultures I suppose it would be. But as you said, we are Jedi. It would not be done out of selfishness or possessive love.” He unfurled the hand he had kept closed and revealed a pair of woven, silver rings in his palm. “Marry me.”_

_She stared in wonder at him and the rings he held. Her expression softened to one of kindly love for him. “And I suppose you have a minister waiting on us somewhere in this Force-forsaken desert?”_

“ _There is one in Jedha, yes.” He grinned and she rolled her eyes._

  
————

Count Adan gasped and opened his eyes as the last of the images faded from his vision. He heard a metallic ting as the ring fell from his hand and rolled away for a few inches. It twirled on its axis for a minute, the sound of metal against wood filling the otherwise silent room and giving him an eerie feeling.

He slammed a hand over it to make it stop and picked it up again. He didn’t understand what had happened to him but he knew that what he had seen had been his uncle and a woman he had loved.

No. Not just any woman. A Jedi woman and what they had done, what the ring represented, had been frowned upon by the Jedi. “Is that why you hide this away instead of wearing it, Uncle?”

“No.” The unexpected baritone voice startled the young count and he nearly lost the ring, scrambling to catch it before it flew off to who knew where in the closet.

Adan climbed to his feet with as much dignity he had left after that mad dash to save the token. His eyes widened further at the blue specter standing in the doorway of the small room. He knew it was his uncle even if he did look decades younger than when he had died. At least he still wore the Serennian clothing.

“Uncle Doo?” he hesitantly questioned.

The ghost gave a gentle smile, “Yes. But please don’t call me that. We’re not children anymore.”

“Sorry.” He sheepishly bowed his head. Then he remembered the ring and the question this specter had answered. “Why did you store it away?”

“To protect her.”

“From?”

“The Emperor.” Dooku heaved a heavy sigh. “When I lived, in the last decade of my life I met the man who would be emperor. He was a Sith and he forced me to burn every bridge that identified me as a Jedi and as Dooku. But because my marriage to Jocasta had been in secret, he did not know about her.”

“So you hid the ring to keep your love for her a secret?” Adan concluded and the ghost nodded. “Your marriage really was selfless, wasn’t it?”

Dooku nodded solemnly, “I suppose it was.”

The young count looked at the ring again and then at his uncle. “I have your gift, don’t I? The Force.”

“Yes. Only one strong in the Force can hear the kyber crystal and receive visions of the past from touching objects. You’ve begun your first steps into a much larger universe, Adan. The decision to learn more is yours and I can teach you. When you’re ready, I will be here.”

Adan turned the ring over in his hand, “Is that why the Empire never took up residence here? You haunting it?”

His uncle laughed. A sound he hadn’t heard since he was a small boy. It felt warm and pleasant, and he missed the days the older man would tell him stories of his Jedi days.

He wondered if Serenno would be willing to have another Force-sensitive Count. He looked at the ring one more time and made his decision.

The metal band fit snugly on his right ring finger and he looked up at his uncle, “So... Uncle Doo, where do we begin?”


End file.
